Re: X10 to Wireless signal

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

Lewis Gardner <lgardner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>larry.erdman@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> We installed a Town & Country fireplace in our home and it has its own
>> proprietary wall mounted control and wireless RF remote contol.  I am
>> looking for a way to control it with my X10 powerline system and Plato
>> software.
>
>Controlling fire with X-10 is a bad idea. Unless you have a manually
>operated off device like a valve bad things could happen. Such a valve
>would defeat the whole purpose of X-10 except for the wow factor.
>
>In my experience X-10 is over 95% reliable. That is not enough to
>control an open flame in my house.
>
>But that is me. I am not comfortable with an RF remote in this
>application...

All models of this brand of fireplace come with a rather sophisticated
handheld, programmable RF remote so it's probably safe to assume Town &
Country, targeting upscale homes, have done their homework as far as safety
is concerned. It's unlikely that the wall mounted receiver will accept any
codes other than those it has been designed for so there's little likelihood
that one can send any "dangerous" codes that it will act on. (Still, if we
learn the frequency and protocol, it would be a good idea to test all
possible codes as a precaution since it may act on undocumented codes
intended for installer use.)

This is not a simple ON/OFF application so an X-10 appliance module to
replace the wall unit is not applicable (and I'd be concerned about safety
for the same reasons expressed by Lewis).

RF is RF so using a different source of RF doesn't change any fundamentals.
The problem, as I outlined in my earlier post, is in learning the RF
frequency and then in capturing the individual button codes in order to
accurately reproduce them. Having looked at their web page, I suspect few
owners will be willing to hack the original remote, so it really boils down
to whether T&C uses an RF frequency for which there are readily available
off-the-shelf transmitter modules (315, 418, 433.92, 868, 915MHz) or for
which there are programmable chips (covering 300-1000MHz continuous). For
that, the FCC ID on the Maestro remote is the starting point.

     http://www.townandcountryfireplaces.net/maestro.php

Also, this is going to require programming skills which are probably beyond
simple scripting. Unless the OP has those skills, there's not much to be
gained in further discussion.

One other possibility is to check RemoteCentral.com to see if anyone has
already done any homework on this.